Breast cancer originates in the breast tissue. It can kill 40,000 Americans every year. If breast cancer is not found and treated early enough, it becomes much more difficult to treat. It is more common in women, but breast cancer can occur in men. The process of diagnosis and treatment can be a difficult and confusing. There are words you have never heard and procedures you don’t want think about.

You’re doctor plays an essential role in preparing you both emotionally and medically for breast cancer survival. You must come to understand that it is possible to survive after finding out that you have breast cancer. Over 2,500,000 women have survived the treatment for breast cancer. Every year, only 24 women out of 100,000 diagnosed with breast cancer die from the disease.  That means that breast cancer survival is entirely possible if treatment is undertaken promptly and done properly.

It’s important to understand who the professionals are and what they do so that you can understand how they are helping you. They are on your side. It won’t be an easy journey but you have doctors around you who have been treating breast cancer patients for years. The hardest news to accept is going to be the diagnosis that you have breast cancer. You will experience anxiety, depression, and shock. Dr. Carolyn Kaelin wrote a book called “Living Through Breast Cancer.” She is a breast cancer surgeon at Harvard. She not only helps patients by treating them but she is also a breast cancer survivor.

This book is different from many of the how-to books available because Dr. Carolyn Kaelin is a survivor who has dealt with both sides of breast cancer. She had to learn how to continue being a Harvard doctor but also to also learn to fight like never before for her own life. She shares her own experiences with her breast cancer battle and how she was able to overcome it. Dr. Carolyn Kaelin, the director of the Comprehensive Breast Health Center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and assistant professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School, was 42 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Having been through the same ordeal, she says, “Trusting those who will treat and care for you is essential.” When you first found out about the cancer, you were probably angry, sad, or confused. It is easy to wish that the diagnosis had to be a mistake. Now that you and your doctor are certain, don’t let it stop you from living. You’re still a mother, daughter, wife, and employee.

Dr. Kaelin says it is important to gather emotional support. Get this support from your family and your friends. With over 2 million breast cancer survivors, you probably know someone who has gone through what you are about to go through. Sit down with them. Talk to them. Tell them of your concerns. Let them give you advice.

“Living Through Breast Cancer” is a wonderful tool for you. Dr. Kaelin gives you updated research, medical expertise, and her own experience. She tells you of her own fears of loosing her eyebrows and hair. She shares her struggle so that you can benefit from it. By using her book, the advice of your doctors, your own spiritual resources and the love and support of family and friends, you can beat breast cancer and become one of those who can proudly say, “I am a breast cancer survivor”.